I think that a great contributor the the European preference for the socialist welfare system stems for the experience of the second world war. In a lot of cases post war the state was the only provider for basic needs, food, water and health - especially during initial reconstruction.
The British perception after the war was that going back to the way things were before was not an option - electorally. Even though the UK was basically stuffed after running itself into the ground fighting for six years, the largely unmet promises of the first world war contributed to the perception that the Labour's welfare state was the best option.
Where as the American experience of the homeland being essentially untouched and the USA being twice as rich as it was before the war, pretty much established that their system worked great as it was.
Unless you have siesmic funding collapse then trying to apply an American system into the current European systems is not going to be acceptable to the population. You just have to look at the response in the UK if the NHS is seen to be threatened - basically it would be electoral suicide.
The British perception after the war was that going back to the way things were before was not an option - electorally. Even though the UK was basically stuffed after running itself into the ground fighting for six years, the largely unmet promises of the first world war contributed to the perception that the Labour's welfare state was the best option.
Where as the American experience of the homeland being essentially untouched and the USA being twice as rich as it was before the war, pretty much established that their system worked great as it was.
Unless you have siesmic funding collapse then trying to apply an American system into the current European systems is not going to be acceptable to the population. You just have to look at the response in the UK if the NHS is seen to be threatened - basically it would be electoral suicide.